Our First (busted)week with our New Blue Ridge 3600

[Brave]

Well, lets just say we are off to a poor start. Here is a list of issues we had.
1. Stairs broke
2. Furness would not light
3. Air mattress had a hole in it
4. Dinette slide would not work properly
5 Deal bolt on door would not work

Now this all happen on our first weekend out. At the time of the events I did not have a tow vehicle and could not tow the unit back to town. This might have been a good things, because I am not sure towing in my state of mind would have been good for me or my 5er. I might have towed it to the dump.


So, on Saturday, I called the dealer and talked to the General Manager. He was very good and got some one from the dealership to come out to our lot and pull the unit back to town and get these issues fixed. So Kudos's to my dealer. But right now Forest River is not my best friend. I hope someone from Forest River reads this.

But the big event was my wife broke her arm when she fell off the stairs and had to have pins put in. So, now my work load doubled(I know the women readers will choke on this), but my wife does a lot, and now I have to pick up the slack. (I am going to get it).( I know, I know).(Be kind)

Let's hope the rest of the summer goes better.

[Herk7769]

Deadbolt on door.

I had to remove my piston rod at the top of the door. The 20 PSI piston is WAY too much power for that flimsey door. It pushed the top of the door against the frame at the top (by bending the hinges) within six months.

Once I removed the piston the door locks worked perfectly.

I added a CAMCO door "hold open" to latch the main door open when we were just using the screen door. Caution: Pop Rivets do not work well for this as the door and wall material are not strong enough to take the pressure of popping the rivet. I wound up using Shop 3M: 3M Marine Adhesive/Sealant Fast Cure 5200, 05220, White, 3 oz. and larger pop rivets; then "snugging" the rivet up tight before I cut off the wire with a dremel.

[Brave]

Thanks Lou

Well we have most things fixed, except the furnace. Not sure why I can not get it to come on at night. The fan runs for about 20 seconds and shuts off. No Heat.
Any thoughts out there?

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Brave

Thanks Lou

Well we have most things fixed, except the furnace. Not sure why I can not get it to come on at night. The fan runs for about 20 seconds and shuts off. No Heat.
Any thoughts out there?

Hm. Does it work OK during the day? (Just kidding!)

The heater has a sail switch in the outflow that could be bad. It will not light the furnace if the fan does not run. The "sail" moves and closes a switch that lets the propane flow. No sail; no heat and it will shutdown.

[Brave]

Originally Posted by herk7769

Hm. Does it work OK during the day? (Just kidding!)

The heater has a sail switch in the outflow that could be bad. It will not light the furnace if the fan does not run. The "sail" moves and closes a switch that lets the propane flow. No sail; no heat and it will shutdown.

Lou, Thanks again. I think you hit the nail on the head. I will pass that to my dealer and see what he says. (you should be paid for your advise)
I owe ya.

[bill and theresa]

just had a similar problem with my furnace. the High temp cutout was bad and would not reset. Problem was last person who worked on it put in a 180 degree and it was supposed to be a 225 degree. Its also supposed to reset but would not. original owners used the camper three times and ran the furnace with the slides in covering two vents.

[Grums]

Originally Posted by Brave

Well, lets just say we are off to a poor start. Here is a list of issues we had.
1. Stairs broke
2. Furness would not light
3. Air mattress had a hole in it
4. Dinette slide would not work properly
5 Deal bolt on door would not work

Now this all happen on our first weekend out. At the time of the events I did not have a tow vehicle and could not tow the unit back to town. This might have been a good things, because I am not sure towing in my state of mind would have been good for me or my 5er. I might have towed it to the dump.

So, on Saturday, I called the dealer and talked to the General Manager. He was very good and got some one from the dealership to come out to our lot and pull the unit back to town and get these issues fixed. So Kudos's to my dealer. But right now Forest River is not my best friend. I hope someone from Forest River reads this.

But the big event was my wife broke her arm when she fell off the stairs and had to have pins put in. So, now my work load doubled(I know the women readers will choke on this), but my wife does a lot, and now I have to pick up the slack. (I am going to get it).( I know, I know).(Be kind)

Let's hope the rest of the summer goes better.

From a fellow 3600rs owner, you have our sincere sympathy at what happened. We hope your wife is better soon.
We love our fifth wheel even with small problems. Still waiting to get several completed since late spring but our dealer has been really good.
Have a question about the dining room slide. Our binds the outside seal and is slowing ripping it away in one spot. The rubber flap seal is fine. It's the harder outer seal on the slide itself. Anyone gave the same problem?
The dealer says they are waiting for a response from Forest River but none so far.

[45 ACP]

Originally Posted by Grums

From a fellow 3600rs owner, you have our sincere sympathy at what happened. We hope your wife is better soon.
We love our fifth wheel even with small problems. Still waiting to get several completed since late spring but our dealer has been really good.
Have a question about the dining room slide. Our binds the outside seal and is slowing ripping it away in one spot. The rubber flap seal is fine. It's the harder outer seal on the slide itself. Anyone gave the same problem?
The dealer says they are waiting for a response from Forest River but none so far.

If I understand you correctly...

I had this same issue and discovered the "moving" seal on the side of the slideout was "passing" the "fixed" seal mounted on the skin of the trailer when closing the slideout (make sense?)

I found it was because FR cut the fixed side skin a bit short down at the bottom where the skin and slideout curve down and inwards. This kept the slideout seal from properly pushing against and engaging the fixed skin seal. They would pass each other when closing and tear the rubber.

A piece of aluminum sheet metal curved by hand and some pop rivets all under the trim and seal on the fixed skin side and I now have a skin "extension" (can't exactly add sheet metal any other way) This gives the slideout seal something to push against and no more passing problems.

If you're careful about unscrewing and removing the existing trim and seal, you won't even see the modification.

I can take pics if you want. Took about 30 minutes to do.

[Grums]

I would love some photos. If it's the same and sounds like it is, I'll give them to my dealer in hopes of solving our problem. Thanks again for all your help. Look forward to your reply. Cheers.

[Brave]

Grums

Well the wife is back to normal. We have most of our issues fixed. But interesting that the seal is tearing on the dinette slide. We are having the same issue as well. The first week we had the trailer out, the dinette side would not retract without binding. The dealer had to make some adjustments to get to slide in or out. Now the seal is tearing. Other than some of bad luck, we truly love the trailer. Hope your summer is good and full of camping.

[Grums]

Sounds the same doesn't it? Who is your dealer? All Star? I'd like to know so I can send the fix info to my guy so he can follow up. Thanks. Ps glad your wife is doing better.

[Brave]

Yup, All Star, and they are very good. Talk to Garith, he is the best.

[Grums]

Thought it might be. I'll tell my guy. He can talk to your guy. Thanks Brave!

[Terier]

Thank goodness that your wife is doing much better! How did almost every one miss the part about breaking her arm?? But then you didn't get to that part until the end...guess guys think differently than us gals. LOL

[Grums]

It's almost always us girls who catch the details. Nice to hear from another girl. Cheers.

[45 ACP]

Originally Posted by Grums

I would love some photos. If it's the same and sounds like it is, I'll give them to my dealer in hopes of solving our problem. Thanks again for all your help. Look forward to your reply. Cheers.

OK, I apologize in advance for the poor quality (cell phone) of the pics, but I did the best I could with the time/equipment I had. Honestly, if you open the slideout and look underneath, I think it will make more sense.

FYI, the perspective of these photos is taken while lying down looking up at the aft part of the roadside slideout:





Looking at the second photo, you can see how I added the aluminum sheeting (actually roof flashing since it’s all I had available at the campground) in order to give the slideout seal something to “push” against when closed. I used the trim seal screws (one of which is visible just to the left of red arrow, more visible in first photo) to punch through and hold the aluminum sheeting. I cut the flashing such that it's tucked behind the non-moving skin rubber seal and isn't visible when the slideout is open.

(I put "pop-rivet" in the first photo, but after inspecting closer I decided to use the factory trim screws as it was easier and less permanent in case the mod didn't work.)

In other words, the “white” arrow portion was bypassing the non-moving skin seal (underneath/on outer side of red), causing the “white” arrow portion to tear when opening/closing. I hope this makes sense.

Like I said, open the slideout, unscrew the trim seal from the non-moving skin of the trailer, and I’m confident you will see the problem (if in fact FR cut the skin too “short” on your trailer like they did to mine).

Please also note that I added some spray foam after doing the modification. You can see the "new" foam in the first photo as the brighter yellow stuff. I had to cut away some of the factory foam to tuck in the new piece of aluminum before screwing it down. A $5 can of expanding insualtion foam from your local home improvement store will do the job (wear disposable gloves!!!)

[Arn]

I had the same issue with my furnace. Turns out a connecter had broken off. I documented 21 issues with my trailer in the first year. All but 1 are fixed & I now love my rig. The 1 that isn't fixed is the second dud Concertone, but Concertone doesn't think it's defective & too bad if it is cuz we're not replacing it. Na na on me. But that's a story for another day...

[F and E Damp]

We have seal problems on our Georgetown also. We had a failure in the dinette slide ceiling seal that let water into the overhead cabinets. It wasn't until the start of this season we noticed the moldy smell. I'm in the process of building new cabinets.

We also have an issue on the floor-level seal of the bedroom slide. It seems to have rolled over for about a 6" length. Obviously water ingress isn't an issue, but critter ingress is. I'll be under the slide soon lubricating it with dry-rub graphite and trying to re-attach it to the sill.

Is it feasible to mix dry graphite or molybdenum lubricant with vegetable oil to apply it? I would think vegetable oil wouldn't damage the seal material. Comments?